Nexiuz is a free, incredibly fast paced, online deathmatch game. There’s nothing particullary innovative about it, although the weapons are really cool, but the gameplay is great, the netcode is solid, and it’s free for Linux, Windows, and Mac:
With the popularity of Unreal Tournament and Quake (not to mention a slew of other popular titles such as Halo, Battlefield 1942, Doom 3, Counter-Strike, etc.), creating a new first person shooter that can compete in graphics, sound, scope, and just the plain thrill of blowing your opponents’ heads into tiny little pieces is a huge undertaking. And making the game over the internet with minimal budget under the General Public License (GPL) raises this challenge to staggering heights. Yet the group of designers, artists, and programmers calling themselves Alientrap have done just that.Nexuiz is a first person sci-fi (non-realistic) type shooter that, as the Nexuiz readme puts it, focuses on bringing deathmatch back to the basics. It’s based on an advanced version of the Quake 1 engine called Darkplaces, and while it doesn’t have the detail of the latest games, it certainly looks and feels more advanced (and of course requires a more powerful computer) than a shooter from ten years ago. It’s probably more at the level of Quake 2 with some of the more advanced lighting and effects features of today’s games. But what separates this game from most currently developed shooter games out there is that it costs…nothing! The team does ask for donations to continue development, but because it’s developed under the GPL, the game is freely playable, modifiable, and distributable (among other free projects). How can you beat that?
I don’t play games much but I did download Nexuiz and give it a try. My 15 minute test stretched into a few hours. It looks great with all of the effects cranked up, plays smooth, and the action is really freaking intense. Parts of it aren’t as polished as commercial games like UT2004 or Doom 3 but hey it’s free.
Related:
Nexuiz home page
Download
Alientrap Forums
Ubuntu installation guide
Wikipedia – DarkPlaces engine
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Very nice, I’m a big fan of Nexuiz, especially the free aspect!